2015-07-31

Vae Viator^65 2015-07-31

The
photograph below documents the situation at the Maxella AV and Lincoln
BL stop on the BBB number 3 Line. It is the sort of “work” one would
expect from the LACMTA. They taped or caused to be taped shut the
aperture in the plastic pipes associated with power poles. These pipes
continue to be used as improvised trash cans. BBB N.B. The stop still
needs a trash can!

BBB Maxella Trash Fix???♪

Su Topo will
include this comment in every post with the above until BBB corrects
the problem. For quite awhile BBB has been charging for intra-line
transfers, reversing the long-standing policy of free transfers to other
BBB lines.

Too, BBB has spent lots of money to build a big headquarters on Colorado BL just east of 4th Street. Mr. King,
just a few dollars for a trash can, you might need a few more to cover
other bus stops too, will erase this section. After all, it is Marina
Del Rey! :-)

Why a trash container is needed♪

The
photo above shows exactly what people will do when a trash container is
not provided. They will jury rig something. What they did, in this
case, is rip off the tape which covered the plastic pipes at the base of
the utility pole and stuffed their trash into the pipe, nice, huh?

The man picturedabove could ensure that trash containers are installed along BBB routes with a simple three-line memorandum.

White Line Incursion Series

Su Topo uses
video to highlight the problem of scofflaw drivers endangering Metro
bus passengers yet, no authority seems to want to take ownership of the
problem. The issue is not unique to the particular site documented by
your Mole, but is illustrative of a general problem. Your Mole
encourages you to report similar problems to the appropriate agencies in
your area(s) and hope that you will have better luck than he. In
the youtube.com videos linked below one can see exactly what happens
when the policing agencies fail to enforce traffic laws.

The
video(s) linked below document the important fact that a never- ending
stream of vehicles fail to use the lane as required by law.

Neither
are the policing agencies active when it comes to protecting us by
bringing these obvious and frequent traffic law violations to an
immediate halt. The LACMTA is derelict as well, in that they fail to use
the near hourly proof of the violations captured by the on board
cameras, mentioned here, and discussed at length in the posting of
2012-05-31.

In the following video(s) we see further instances of scofflaw drivers, cutting in front of Metro 111/311 bus(es).

Please see this video of four (4) vehicles which cross the solid white line and cut off a moving Line 111/311 bus.

The last vehicle in line, a black SUV, makes a last minute rush to beat the bus.

Please
carefully note that in some videos, pedestrians are pinned to the curb
by the vehicles that cut in front of the bus —as a result these
pedestrians are illegally denied the right-of-way. Which right-of-way
would beunchallengeablely theirs IF, and only IF, Mr. Washington would review su Topo’s simple solution (vide infra) and implement it.

In spite of the potential for these violations to occur several times per HOUR,
I have never seen a police presence at this location. One would think
that with a bus schedule taped to the dashboard one of the several
policing agencies would have made some arrests by now. Unless they have
"more important" work to do than protecting bus passengers.

La
Taupe feels that it is appropriate to dedicate these video(s) to ALL
the agencies that should be protecting us. So, they are dedicated to
(1): Airport (LAWA) Police, the L.A.P.D., the L. A. County Sheriff’s
Department and Mr. Washington who is CEO of the LACMTA.

Su Topo has recommended a simple solution to
the problem. That is, have the 111 Line buses pull up to pedestrian
crosswalk then stop and discharge passengers. Doing so eliminates the
space in front of the bus which the always-in-a-hurry scofflaws use to
cut in front of the bus. But, with the LACMTA nothing is simple.
Although the solution could be implemented with nothing more than a memo
to the 111/311 Line drivers, it is a task for which the LACMTA so far
has proved to be inadequate.

An homage for her "contribution" to L.A. transportation.

Your
Mole would like the former head of LAWA remembered for her
"contribution" to Los Angeles area public transportation. She was
quicker than her contemporary, the former head of the LACMATA, to implement the lucrative FlyAway
service and discouraged all attempts, however feeble, to bring other
modes of transportation to LAX.

Too, we should memorialize her attitude vis-à-vis
public transportation directly to LAX in following the transportation
access pattern used by many, if not most, world-class airports, to wit, "Any time you go under the airport, it is fraught with problems, ..." [hardly a get it done attitude!].

The Mole reads the papers and other things, obviating the necessity of your doing so.

The Times reports (Weikel) on the reconstruction plan for the Rosa Parks Blue Line Station. The LACMTA wants to spend $65 million on the project. Su Topo's first question is, "Will it include public restrooms"?This project is typical of the LACMTA's approach, viz., slap it together as cheaply as possible, then worry about making it the way it should have been on opening day. The article described several "improvements" that are planned, but public restrooms did not seem to be one of them.
Please read this article, as well as all the cited articles written by hard-working reporters ―all linked in Works Cited, below. The Los Angeles Times covers (Nelson2) the LACMTA's hopes [dreams?] that bicycling will be the adjunct to its services which will get people to there destination. The only quote which I will cite is this: 'Bridging those so-called "first mile, last mile" gaps in Los Angeles County's transportation network is key, officials say, to boosting ridership and connecting would-be transit commuters to the county's growing rail system. Transportation planners hope bike-share can be the solution.'La Taupe immediately fixated on "last mile" and thought of the LACMTA's decades of bungling which puts them in the position of still being a mile short of LAX! What fun it will be to watch people on bicycles juggling their luggage and rushing to make their flight. The mind-set at the LACMTA is such that, only they could even conceive of a bike-sharing scheme and then follow it with a public statement which I included above.
It can be an unnerving experience to cross a street in Los Angeles County

―I submit the example of crossing Sepulveda at Rosecrans in El Segundo as such an experience.

To propose such a plan shows that the proposers likely have neither ridden a bicycle nor public transportation in our fair city.They can't build a rapid transit system here, but: "L.A. officials have sung the system's praises, saying it could eliminate some car trips, make transit use more fun ...".
Ms Nelson reporting for the Times covers a history of the Blue Line. Her reporting is excellent, however, it is the usual hype of the politicians and LACMTA "officials" that detracted from the piece. What wasn't mentioned is that fact the Blue Line trains bound for Long Beach frequently terminate at Willow Station, much short of the Transit Plaza, and returns to Los Angeles. This is the LACMTA's proposition: "we cheat you out of a ride and pass the savings on to somebody else!"

The
Times also printed an interesting history of the Blue Line, headlined
"Metro's Blue Line is a microcosm of the community it serves", on
July 14th. You can read it here.

The Los Angeles Times informs us (Nelson3) that although Phase II of the Expo Line, Culver City to Santa Monica, is physically ready a long test period lies ahead of the LACMTA. I can wait, although hardly, to ride the line myself. It will be interesting to see exactly how any of the new stations have public facilities.The article says "Westside residents and commuters will see trains moving at street level between 5mph and 25mph as officials check to see where trains could strike platforms and overhead wires." That assertion would bring out howls of laughter, the ROF kind, in any city other than Los Angels. Were the specifications that loose? Or did people string up wires after a segment was built? No, it is simply the LACMTA in "action" --build then plan.So, I'm happy that they will have a long test period, the longer the better. The longer they test the higher the probability that they will find most of their problems.Just one other quote from Ms Nelson's excellent piece: "... [Another] test Wednesday, watched by a group of public officials and rail fans, but the train was pushed by a truck [ :-) ] A video published by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority showed the train moving along the track, but most of the footage did not show the truck. [:-) :-)]". That's my LACMTA! Ms Nelson, merci bien for pointing out their hypocrisy!Thoughtfully included in this article are "Metro's safety tips: ...". Since they refuse to build a safe, elevated rapid transit line or the subway to the sea, they do give you tips that if you fail to obey will make any consequence, umm, your fault.I would like to cover more of transportation news from the Los Angeles Times. Since I travel on assignment a lot of time, I miss print editions of the paper.

Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Times search mechanism leaves much to be desired. It seems that they did not come easily into the digital age. Here is some technical advice for the Times: It would be a great idea to use the ISO8601 dating methodology for publication within their database, further articles should be assigned a subject code. An excellent starting point for such coding structure is the IPTC [International Press Telecommunications Council]. The IPTC is the source of coding structures which enable better search results from a publication's archives.

I would be satisfied to be able to search by subject main code, e.g., transportation and a sub-code, e.g., local. So if I wanted to see all July articles for local transportation, my search argument ―when searching the Los Angeles Times achieves―might be along these lines: 2015-07 transportation-local. One can dream, can't one?« La mort est le commencement de l'immortalité »

Here is an example of his work, “Poudre de riz”. Please search independently for more of his work. N.B. Although you must be aware that much of his work is intended for adults. Also, please visit his site.

¿Musica?

Let's listen to some of work ofMatthieu-Frédéric Blasius (1758-1829).Here is his concerto pour clarinette.

Thank you to Juan Escate for the upload and especially, of course, to youtube.com!

he
Mole rides again, so you don’t have to try to puzzle out why the LACMTA is always advertising its "greatness".

Someone appears to have Photo-shopped the above photo. But the modifications have the look and feel of truth. Click on the photo above to enlarge it, then click once again so that you can read the "photo shopping" along the bottom of the bus.

Rail's 25th Birthday - or is it one year 25 times?

﻿

The LACMTA is faster than a lightning bolt to blow their horn. But in reality they rank below any city, larger or smaller, which has implemented rapid transit for their ridership. Their current attempt is about one mile away from LAX at its closest point of approach.

Bus Schedules Titled the Way They Should Be!♪

The new schedules were issued on June 28, 2015,but as usual, they were not on board the buses for a varying number of days depending upon the Line and/or subcontractor relationship. As of the date of this publication, schedules were only intermittently available aboard many lines.

Please note, in the photo above, note the naming protocol which I developed. Under the LACMTA's "system" one cannot easily check the time tables on metro.net -> and determine if your copy is current.

My naming convention? Simple, the bus line number(s) followed by a dash, then an "E", which stands for effective [date], followed by the ISO8601 formatted effective date. N.B. that this convention maintains the proper sort order; that means that December 2014 will precede January 2016. Dates formatted as 12152015 will precede 01032016 --that is an improper sort order. Of course, the main sort here is by bus line.

NO, NO! Don't thank me LACMTA! Your staff could have done this but I understand your philosophy: "If you are making things easier for the ridership, you are wasting time!" Oh, as noted on my cell above, we have "No Service" inside of a Faraday Cage.

M V Transportation buses are NOISY!♪

M V Transportation is headquartered in Dallas, TX with Mr. Brian Kibby as CEO. Here are a few thoughts for Mr. Washington to discuss with Mr. Kibby. These issues mostly are under the rubric, Best Practices

Why can't MV Transportation adjust the volume on ﻿the ASAs to a less than an eardrum shattering level.

Ditto for the dispatch radios―I've almost never heard one on a LACMTA operated Metro bus but they blare out at full volume on most of the MV Transportation buses. Which provides a caustic audio environment for the drivers too and puts them in a bad/worse mood.

Why can't MV Transportation contract "operators" in Southern California pull up to the bus stop flag AND align their buses to be equidistant from the curb, i.e., an easy step into or out of the bus —NOT two metres away!

Use the rear door BUT, it's so far from the curb!♪

Many ﻿ LACMTA drivers, er, "operators" , both regular employees and contractors, just cannot seem to position their buses close to the curb. Is it poor training?, sloppy driving?, an unprofessional attitude?, or what? Making an announcement to "... watch your step when you exit..." is not a substitute for good driving. Although I don't have definitive data ―the Metro ladies seem to have the most problems spatially orienting their vehicles [to be continued].

Never fear, your Mole has an answer! The LACMTA frequently boasts, er tells us that they have excellent drives who place highly in a "Bus Rodeo". Here you can see a typical rodeo, if not LACMTA drivers. Your Mole suggests that they have a local, Metro Only Rodeo, and use their experienced Rodeo winners to evaluate the entire company's drivers for skill in: pulling up to the curb; smooth driving and stopping; having a pleasant personality and etc.

The especially bad drivers who are unable to pull up to the curb in a straight line, equidistant and an easy step off or on the bus, make rough stops and drive producing a rough and jerky ride or have other skill and/or personality flaws could be singled (grouped) out for additional training days. That is the way a true "America's Best" would operate.

How about it, Mr. Washington plan for a driver upgrade soon and invite Mr. Kibby to Los Angeles and you can challenge him to retrain his drivers and adopt some "best practices". I would suggest a ride from LAXCBC to Long Beach on a 232 Line bus and additional rides on the 125 and 130 for their full lengths. After that I'm sure you will agree with the validity of la Taupe's points.

﻿

﻿

Curb, as rarely seen when alighting♪

Above is a rider's eye view of the curb, including the gum blobs. It is not that BBB riders who are the only ones who litter. However it is rarely seen, such an easy step down! Usually it is too far to reach and the long step down must be made.

Easy for me, but not so for some ladies and the senior passengers.

﻿

2015-07-27 Morning: I have an opportunity to interview someone involved in the construction of the Toonerville trolley stations who tells me that station plans include provisions for public restrooms but they are seldom built. He offers that some "selected stations do have such facilities —yet I have never seen one so I question that assertion.

2015-07-27 late morning: I am aboard a 40 Line bus which is being driven by what has to be one of the LACMTA's top drivers. He is a true professional, pleasant to passengers and handles this articulated bus as if it were a VW bug!

Even at stops with very little space, he pulled up parallel to and equidistantly near the curb! His I.D. number? 76937.

2015-07-27 I'm waiting for a 125 line bus on Rosecrans. I look down at the bench on which I'm seated and decide that it should be photographed.

The creative rider's solution♪

The ridership's creativity in disposing of their trash never ceases to amaze me.Please keep in mind, that although not all bus stops have a trash cans, this one did —it was six easy paces from the bench.

L o n g Step!♪

Pictured above is another view of the exit from an improperly positioned bus. I hope Mr. Washington will begin to improve his drivers skills soon.

﻿

Ear (and Eye) to the Rail

Transit as unseen and unimagined by the LACMTA

The LACMTA (Subordinate to LAWA)

Presents

Every Which Way But Right!

OR

Four Seats to LAX!

OR

The LACMTA Tries Again; Asymptotically to LAX!

OR

The World’s Most Inconvenient Way in Which to Travel From City Center to an Airport!

The
purpose of this section is to make people aware that the LACMTA is not
home to many problem solvers. I hope to accomplish this end by
presenting the solutions adopted by other cities, some in foreign
countries, in solving the city to airport rapidmass transportation challenge.

Cautionary Note: Those employed by the LACMTA or LAWA should NOT view the following video(s). The
speed of the train(s), the fact that they neither share the right of
way nor stop at stop lights, because they are truly rapid transit, will
likely make you dizzy, nauseous, confuse and frighten you.

With
a population of about eight and one half million ―making it smaller than Los Angeles― London has lots of rapid transportation. The
connection to Heathrow airport does require transfers as it does in any major city. You see they don't build silly "connectors", they design the lines to cross and create natural transfer point!

Let’s take a ride from Victoria Station to Heathrow Airport. I like this video so much! It brings out the urban dweller in me. One doesn't see many 300 pound people on this ride. It shows that, in cities like London, Tokyo, the D.F. in México, New York City and etc., one must really learn how to navigate the system and be aware of what one is doing and how he is doing it.

Thanks to the up loader of this video: "backpacktrot" who captures big city life in a film that is under twelve minutes long ―nice work!

There is a lot going on in the solar system, the Pluto fly-by and etc. But to this Mole the big news is that The Telegraph.com reports that we are headed for an ice age in about fifteen years; please read all about it here.

Just like e-mails, it is always best to think before you reply, this especially applies when you consider engaging E.T. in conversation. The operative quote from the article is "The history of weak civilisations contacting more advanced civilisations is not a happy one," he said." (Richards).

Please read the story in the British publication, The Independent, here.

Note: No or few entries above do not necessarily mean all fare boxes are in operation.

I.D.Numbers of Distracted Drivers:xxxxx (i);

None included here, but observations of a minor nature may be included in the main posting;

Codes:
(i) Extended conversation(s) with passenger(s) or (ii) cell phone
call(s). Frequently, details can be found in the text above, (ii*) cell
phone call(s) which are aggravated by some other action, (iii)
Self-distracted. Codes (ii*) and (iii) will ALWAYS be explained in the
posting.

I.D. Numbers of Buses Defaced by WhoIs stickers:xxxx;

~UR
or +UR = (+UR) whois sticker and the ugly residue left after passengers
partly remove the sticker. (~UR) = Only the ugly residue left after
passengers almost completely remove the sticker. +L = an old (legacy)
sticker black letters on a plain white background –these are the
original form of the defacement.

* Another reason for displaying the operator's ID on the internal display and the headsign.

The
format is Driver number F[{Y/-n/+n}] C[{Y/N+/-}]. Meaning of F if Y the
driver stopped with the Bus stop “flag pole” somewhere between the bus
front door frames. A negative number, e.g., -3 is the approximate
distance in metres (think yards dear readers) between the nearest bus
door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus
stopped short of the flag. A positive number, e.g., +3 (metres) is the
approximate distance between the nearest bus door vertical frame member
and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped past the flag. The
value for C[{Y/N}], “Y” tells us that the driver stopped within an easy
step from the curb to the bus, “N” means it was NOT an easy step from
the curb to the bus. It is this Mole's belief that an average
experienced good driver should be able to control his bus so as to
position in near the curb and with the flag pole slightly to the front
of the bus.

xxxxx F[] C[];

I.D. numbers of drivers who are unable or unwilling to position their buses parallel to the curb, a short step from the curb and/or equidistant from the vehicles exits.

ADADO =
Automatic Destination Announcement (on) Door Opening. This feature is
installed on many buses and operates on extremely few. Another “money
down the toilet” LACMTA investment. La Taupe that this is intended for
the visually impaired because people who can see can read the “head
signs”.

ASAS =
Automatic Stop Announcement System the GPS (Global Positioning System)
driven mechanism for generating audio for the upcoming stops. N.B.
Because of the low power (read weak) processors used in the on-board
stops may be too close to identify stops separately. This is known as a
granularity problem. Then too, if the driver operates the bus at speed
above the speed limit you will find the system “back announcing” stops
which you have already passed. I find that this will NOT keep some
drivers from complaining “that you didn’t signal (ring) in time”. They
don’t understand their relationship to the system and how, by driving
faster than the GPS computer, they can bias it.

BART =Bay Area Rapid Transit – Please note the use of the word “Rapid” because it is a word we almost never hear in Los Angeles.

BBB = Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus

CHSRA = California High-Speed Rail Authority, which is the equivalent, in more ways than one, of the LACMTA.

CC or CCMBL = Culver City (Municipal) Bus (Lines)

CCTC =
Culver City Transportation Center this is the place formerly known
as FHMTC = the Fox Hills Mall Transportation Center
(Sepulveda& Slauson)

FFE = Full Fare Equivalent (presently $1.75)

GMBL = Gardena Municipal Bus lines

ITC = Inglewood Transit Center

LAWA = Los Angeles World Airports.

LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.

OCTA = Orange County Transportation Authority.

OOS = Out Of Service.

Rapid Transit =
does not compete for right of way, that is, it will not run at grade
unless it has EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED USE of the right of way).

R&J = Rough and Jerky [ride].

TT= Torrance Transit.

T1= the normal type of driver/staff.

T2= is the non-stop talker type of driver/staff, on the phone or to passengers,

T3= the uncommunicative type of driver/staff, sometimes surly.

WLATC = the West Los Angeles Transportation Center (Fairfax & Apple)

Su Topo’s Disclaimer and apologia

Your
Mole always attempts to write an easy-on-the-eyes page using text
input. Blogger.com however, has other ideas and will often not stay with
a single font type or point size, produces extraneous spacing and etc. I
wish I had time to debug the HTML which they produce, it is NOT the
straight text which I pasted into the form, but I don’t. Therefore, I
apologize on behalf of Blogger.com for the changes which they make, of
which I do not approve. Sometimes, what I see, thankfully you don’t, is
24 point type –it is giant and other times they swallow my text,
although it still seems to be there. In fairness to them, things seem
better, although this is partly because I do understand which of their
“features” do the most damage to me and consequently do not use them. Communicating
these problems to them, for me, is something like having teeth
extracted without the benefit of anesthetic, actually it is less fun
than that. By their design, there is no simple e-mailing them with "Please look at my say, posting of 2009-06-28, it is weird!” I have been submitting feedback and experiences slow but positive progress. Until all issues are resolved, lo siento. [Addendum 2014-07-31]: Things
have been much better lately. There is a more responsive feedback
system now. If things keep this way, I may have to delete this "Disclaimer and apologia" section in the near future. Almost immediately after writing the preceding, the system "returned an error" on a save.

This
site contains or provides links to copyrighted material the use of
which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, sustainable
development, environmental, community and worker health, public
disclosure, corporate accountability, and etc. We have often included
relatively brief quotes from articles and etc., sometimes in addition to
a simple link, because we have found that links frequently go "bad" or
change over time. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on
this site is distributed without fee or payment of any kind to those who
have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information
for research and educational purposes and to those who access the site
via any and all other channels. If you wish to use copyrighted material
from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Music or other recorded
material on this site, or referred to by this site are copyrighted by
their respective artists and are made available here for evaluation
purposes only. Please support the artists you like by buying their
commercial CDs, MP3s and downloads.

Your Mole’s Conflict of Interest Statement

This
is to certify that I, the blogger who is known as the LAmetroMole, with
respect to this blog, except as described below, am not now nor at any
time during the past year have been, nor is it my current intention to
ever be:

1)
A participant, directly or indirectly, in any arrangement, agreement,
investment, or other activity with any vendor, supplier, or other party
doing business with any of the entities about which I have written,
which has resulted or could result in personal benefit to me.

2)
A recipient, directly or indirectly, of any salary payments or loans or
gifts of any kind or any free service or discounts or other fees from
or on behalf of any person or organization engaged in any transaction
with any of the entities about which I have written.

Any
exceptions to 1 or 2 above are stated below with a full description of
the transactions and of the interest, whether direct or indirect, which I
have (or have had during the past year) in the persons or organizations
having transactions with any of the entities about which I have
written. there are no exceptions.